


the dancing lawns

by embraidery



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Celebrations, Dancing, Gen, Melancholy, Nymphs & Dryads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27302266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/embraidery/pseuds/embraidery
Summary: Set during Prince Caspian, Lucy gathers everyone together for a dance just like old times.
Relationships: Caspian & Lucy Pevensie & Susan Pevensie
Comments: 3
Kudos: 25





	the dancing lawns

**Author's Note:**

> written for @narniagiftexchange on Tumblr!

Lucy was thrilled to be back in Narnia. She absolutely wanted to take advantage of it. Thousand years gone by or no, she wanted to have a proper dance on the Lawns with the trees and the maenads and the fauns and everybody! It wasn’t hard to gather everyone together for such an event. Most Beasts had already emerged from their burrows and nests, and the fauns and maenads were already around and keen to dance again. Lucy gathered a few animal helpers and went into the woods to find everyone else.

Their hidey-holes were subtle enough not to be found by the Telmarines, who feared the woods and knew nothing about them, but Lucy had spent years among her subjects and knew all about how to spot a burrow. So she knocked at doors and called out hellos until she had collected things necessary for a dance: great big skin drums, skins of wine and barrels of mead, bread and grapes and cheese. Peter carried the barrels, trying his hardest to make it look easy in front of his baby sister, while Edmund carried the drums and Susan balanced platters and bowls of food in her arms. Before long they'd all reconvened at the Dancing Lawn. 

The dirt was stone-solid now, packed down under the feet of a thousand years of dancers. The clearing was surrounded with trees so tall Lucy hadn’t recognised the Lawns when they had first gathered there under King Caspian. Lucy pressed her hands to the gnarled bark of the first tree she saw. They had grown much bigger than any tree Lucy had ever seen, and she reveled in it. She tilted her head back to look at their branches and leaves far, far above.

Cornelius had warned Lucy that the dryads would be more cautious to emerge from their trees than the Beasts would be from their holes. Lucy wasn’t worried, though. She knew what to do. She gathered everyone into the Lawns with her infectious grin. They lit a bonfire, welcoming all their guests into the warmth. Dwarves took their places at the drums, beating a steady rhythm. Some of the other Beasts and spirits took up tambourines and began to weave between the trees at the edges of the Lawn.

Lucy could feel the drumbeat through her feet, vibrating its way up into her ribcage, pulsing in time with her heart. She felt as though she was waking up from a long and boring dream; Spare 'Oom was as far away as it was possible to be. She sat down to remove her shoes and wiggled her bare toes in the fresh grass.

Peter walked toward her from across the lawn. “I had my doubts, Lucy, but I think this was an excellent idea." He leaned down and offered her his hand.

"I knew it would be." Lucy took Peter’s hand and pulled herself to her feet. "I just can't wait for the dryads to come out!"

Peter looked up at the trees above them. "I hope they do."

Lucy dusted pieces of grass from her knickerbockers before joining in the dance. She used to practice the steps in her bedroom in England, just to make sure she never forgot them, and it had paid off; but the dances had evolved somewhat in a thousand years, so she had to learn them anew. The maenads slung their arms across her shoulders and drew her into the dance.

Caspian had never seen such a thing. He had heard about the Dances, of course; he'd longed to be able to see one. But his imaginings paled in comparison with the real thing. Even just warming up, the clearing was full of laughter, shouts, and the ever-present beating of the drum. Some of the Beasts he'd met, of course, but he hadn't seen the maenads. They were fiercely beautiful with their long black hair all woven through with grape vines, barefoot and wearing fawn skins. Caspian stood just at the edge of the crowd taking it all in.

Susan came up next to him, holding a goblet of wine. "It's quite a sight, isn't it?"

Caspian nodded, still watching the dance, before turning to Susan. "Is it all like this?"

“Narnia, do you mean?”

“Yes.”

Susan took a slow sip of her wine. “This is something special. Enjoy it while you can!"

"What do you mean?"

Susan cocked her head and watched the dancers, long dark hair falling over one shoulder. "It's easy to get buried in paperwork and making laws, if you aren't paying attention."

"I will have to pay attention, then!”

"Good." Susan smiled at Caspian. She opened her mouth as if to say more, but the swell of the crowd swirled toward them, and Lucy reached out for her sister. Susan grabbed her hand and joined the maelstrom.

Even with the pounding of drums and of feet thrumming through the ground and the jingling of the tambourines and the hum of talk, Caspian's attention was drawn by something new. There came a rumbling that felt as if it came from somewhere down deep, so that the whole earth felt unsteady under Caspian's feet. He grabbed a nearby tree. The tree swayed under his palms, no steadier than the earth, and Caspian tightened his hold.

Then the tree moved in quite an unexpected way. It went forward as though it was gliding across the ground, and Caspian realised too late that he was holding onto a living tree. He scrambled backward and landed on the grass. The ground rolled underneath him as though he was on the deck of a ship. All around him, the other trees began to move.

Or were they trees? As Caspian craned his neck up, up, up to look at the trees, they looked more like people. The one he had grabbed resembled a woman with long tangled hair flowing down her back and over her arms, if hair flowed like leaves and branches.

All around them Narnians stopped dancing to watch the trees. The drums and tambourines went silent. Lucy clasped both hands to her heart before waving them in the air.

“The trees have awoken!” she cried. Voices of all timbres (deep, rolling dwarf voices, nasal faun voices, shrill voices of birds and squirrels and mice) rang out, joining in the cry.

The arms of the trees, or the branches of the people (Caspian couldn’t tell which), dipped and swayed above them in a graceful motion. The branches sent great gusts of wind down on all the dancers. Lucy threw her arms up again and twirled in a circle, almost wishing she still had her gymslip on so it would swirl around her legs. She caught Caspian looking her direction and waved at him. Susan waved over Lucy’s shoulder.

Caspian waded into the crowd just as it began moving again. The dwarves resumed their drumbeat, the Beasts their tambourine accompaniment, and everything was a swirl of sound and colour. Lucy and Susan each caught one of his hands and gently pulled him along.

“Left in front, right behind, left in front, kick!” Lucy called, and Caspian tried his best to keep up. He’d been trained in dancing for years, of course, but Telmarine dances were nothing like Old Narnian dances. Still, he got the hang of the dance after only a few stumbles.

A million textures brushed past their arms and legs: soft furs, rough furs, bare skin, hair, leather, homespun fabric. Lucy was still wearing the clothes she’d been wearing on the train platform, though she’d discarded her cardigan, gymslip, shoes, and stockings. Susan had tutted at her, of course, but in the absence of many other humans (let alone those from England), she eventually threw her stockings aside as well. It had been a hot day, and with so many people close together the day was slow to cool down, though the trees’ dance served as a sort of air conditioning.

Eventually Lucy, Susan, and Caspian worked their way out of the crowd and flopped onto the grass at the edge of the Lawns. Lucy laid all the way back on the grass, enjoying the breeze ruffling her hair.

Caspian looked around the clearing, taking in this wonderful slice of his kingdom. The crowd had lessened, leaving many Beasts relaxing just as he was. Leopards arched their backs, tails waving languorously in the air. Birds ruffled their feathers and rolled in the grass.

Peter came over to them on the grass, still breathing hard from dancing. He settled down next to Lucy and ruffled her hair.

“Thanks for organising a dance, Lu. I didn’t know how much I missed it until now.”

Lucy grinned and turned her face up to the last rays of the setting sun. “Couldn’t you just stay here forever?”

The older Pevensies laughed.

“It’ll be much too cold here in the winter,” Susan said sensibly.

Lucy frowned. “You knew what I meant!”

Caspian cut in before it could all come to tears, not that it probably would. “I could stay here forever, Lucy.”

Lucy grinned and bumped her shoulder against Caspian’s. “Thank you! Isn’t it lovely?”

“Yes, it is.” Caspian again looked out over the dwindling crowd as pairs and groups left the Dancing Lawns, chattering and laughing. “I would have you stay forever if I could!”

Peter and Susan exchanged glances.

“Why do you look like that?” Lucy asked.

“It’s nothing,” said Susan, and, “Don’t worry about it, Lu,” said Peter.

“I can tell when you’re keeping something from me, you know. I’m not a baby!”

Peter shrugged at Susan, who sighed.

“Aslan told us — Susan and I — that we won’t be coming back to Narnia.”

“No, it can’t be!” Lucy gasped.

Peter put one hand on Lucy’s shoulder. “It’s quite alright, Lu. It all made sense to us when he explained it — you’ll see.”

“Still!”

Caspian leaned into Lucy from the other side. “Let’s enjoy our time with them while we can.”

“Yes, let’s,” Susan said, smiling softly. “And I’m sure we’ll have many more adventures together back in England.”

“Promise?” Lucy asked.

“Promise,” they all said together, and pulled Lucy into a group hug.

“Good.”


End file.
